This really speaks to me. I think I’m spending so much time on personal development / overcoming my fears that I’m not doing enough activity! Why is it so hard to figure out exactly what we’re afraid of? Why do we care so much what other people think? I’m working on it. . .

I can really relate with this. I too am so engulfed in PD that I spend my days reading, listening to audios and not working my business.
I start to think I am ready and then I do nothing about it. Really, what is that about anyway?

The best thing I have heard on the subject of fear is “Do the thing you fear. Do the thing and you will have the power.” Or, as NIKE puts it, “Just DO it!”

It is working for me. If you keep prospecting, and ignore the fear, it disempowers it and eventually it will slink back into its corner.

If you truly believe you are offering the prospect the finest gift you could give them, then you should be proud of your action. They are crazy to turn you down or perhaps just not ready yet. Either way, you’ve done your part — the ball is in their court. Go ask someone else. Get better through practice.

Wow! I went from doing great signing people up and being confident to total FEAR! I am not sure what happened, but I feel as though I’m pulling myself out of a deep pit! Is this that much of a roller coaster ride? Has this happened to anyone else? I just forced myself to make six phone calls…something that I used to be excited to do, now scares me. Based on this…it seems I’m afraid of success! But why?

I have been studying this for a long time and the last three weeks it has been my question of the day. The answer, fear, is insufficient and too easy to use as the perfect excuse.

In every situation we know what we have to do and then there is actually doing it. The ‘GAP’ between the knowing and the doing for some is fear but for many others it is filled with focusing on the wrong stuff, or attempting to focus on too much believing they can multi-task. Some are great starters who never finish any single task completely. Asking why provides an answer but the answer always puts you back to knowing on the wrong side of the gap.

Some filter out what they need to do with what they think they hear and do that… more gap comfort zone. Some are in this for good reasons and they are not fanatical about their company, their product or their dream. Another life stuck in the gap. Some are the other way, so crazed and hyped about the best deal on the planet [there are none] no one believes them. Still others focus only on themselves paying no attention to anyone else’s wants and dreams.

I am an expert at living in the gap. In looking how to bridge it, fill it, eliminate it, disappear it a quote crossed my path. “There is no such thing as a minor lapse in integrity.” – Tom Peters

This is an integrity issue. Fear is a useful excuse. Everyone understands and placates those who are afraid or timid or who use some other similar device. When you see it’s your integrity, when you know others know it’s your integrity, then you can skip the excuses and go to work. The fear is gone; there is just doing what has to be done. Integrity is being whole and complete, nothing missing, nothing added. When we are not whole and complete, something (the justification) is added. Truth needs no justification. In this case, fear, is a lie, a convenient story acceptable to you and everyone because it makes us normal. What is your integrity worth?

It seems to me that people in network marketing have the same fears no matter where they live. I’m from Russia and to read books and listen to self-development disks is also more comfortable for me than to act every day. But I have my partners and I understand that they are to duplicate me. So, I take a phone and invite and make randevouz and presentations and so on. I like Nike’s slogan ‘Just do it’ I think it is the best slogan for network marketers who are afraid of …. what of?

I think that for many, the “fear” that holds many people back is rooted in an internal conflict of “belief” in the business. Looking at the very successful sponsors in the business they have absolutely no doubts about the merits of what their business can give. Looking at “rookies” who take off quickly, they seem to succeed on blind enthusiasm which leads to convictions that leave no room for doubts either.

If you’ve ever paid $45 to bungee-jump because the “dare” looks so simple and fun from the ground you experience the same feelings once you are hoised way up in the air on the platform. If you stare down at the ground, the longer you stare – the less likely you will jump. Analysis by paralysis wins over. Fear takes on a stronger and stronger position the longer it takes to make the leap.

If we analyze anything long enough we will feed into the fears that lurk on the flip-side of the coin. No book has an answer that will make the first leaps any easier. At the end of the day we have to challenge ourselves to “just do it”…